


things that go wrong

by maninlove



Category: Infinite (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M, Time Travel, space demon unwillingly becomes cupid
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-10
Updated: 2018-01-10
Packaged: 2018-11-30 06:45:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11458188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maninlove/pseuds/maninlove
Summary: Woohyun signs a contract in exchange for time travel so naturally he uses it to make Sunggyu love him back





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello everybody I just got a new computer so I'm back with this new thing I did instead of finishing something older haha. I'm not a philosopher and I hate math too but I tried (if something is horribly wrong, please gently correct me). I love you all bye

It is said that one must travel time responsibly. We must not touch anything, for the consequences may be severe in ways we may or may not ever understand. If even a butterfly changes its course due to our actions while we are away from our own time, the course of time can be irreparably altered, for better or worse.

Nam Woohyun read that in a book once. And you know what? He fucking hates math, so he thinks it's stupid. Who says that butterfly was destined for anything? Maybe it was just gonna die soon. Maybe  _he_ was destined to step on it, and so by going back in time and killing it was what was _supposed_ to happen. Not that he actually understands what the hell the point is, of course. The whole thing about its wings causing a tornado far away... yeah, he can't really wrap his brain around that one.

He likes the idea of  _irresponsible_ time travel, like studying all night and going back to the afternoon before to take a long nap before the exam. He likes to use it to fix conversations where he said the  _stupidest_ of things (only when it matters, of course. He's not afraid to look like a fool.) He likes to use it to get an edge over his friends when they try to prank him.

He's never met a double of himself, or he hasn't figured out how to do so in the past couple of months that he's had the ability, so at least he doesn't have to worry about people running into two of him. He's speculated on what that means - that damn skull guy made him read too many books and got all this theory in his head, so what did you expect? - and the only answer he's come up with is pretty stupid.

It also means he's probably _totally_   _fucked_ in thousands of universes - if, that is, it's true that his past self from before the point he traveled back to splintered off into a different universe and no longer exists in his own. Because he's made... a lot of mistakes, just for the sake of seeing what would happen, and then regretting it tremendously and moving back in time so he can, well,  _not_ do that. So if there's a universe where he kept that decision and a universe where he didn't... well, he fucked over that alternate universe him. That kind of freaks him out.

The main downside to this time travel thing is all the limitations. See, it's not unlimited back and forth travel. That's for the  _"masters_ _,"_ or so that creepy skull says. He can't change how he looks, so he'll still look exactly the same no matter what day he returns to, and he can only go forward enough to get back to the moment when he went back in time. If he wanted to go back and change something in 2005, for example, he could, but if it's 2015, he can't go to 2025.

That weird guy with the skulls - well, one skull. He doesn't have a head. It's just a skull, floating above his shoulders without a neck. Whatever. - explained it all to him when he signed the contract to become his "apprentice" or whatever, and he actually remembered some of it. He's the one who made him read that book about chaos theory and whatever else. ("You need to understand the theories so one day you can hope to understand the truth" blah blah.) Now  _that_ had been a dull read.

Woohyun now asks him, "Why did you give the power to me, anyway?" In his enthusiasm to obtain the power, he didn't really think it through that well.

What's-his-name scoffs and sighs and crosses his arms and uncrosses them before responding, "You were the first potential apprentice I found."

"Man, your standards are low."

"I've been  _combing time_ for  _who knows how long_ , and I'm not moving on until you shape the fuck up," he snaps. He adjusts his perfect black suit jacket. "Take it as a compliment."

"I think you'll be waiting a while longer," Woohyun laughs. "Hey, have you ever tried adding blue to your wardrobe? I think it would bring out your eyes." He still doesn't even fucking have eyes, ahaha.

"What?" the skull tilts downward to look at himself. "I don't want to. I'd have to dye my cats blue to hide the fur."

"You can dye your cats blue but you can't put your clothes in the washer?" Woohyun shakes his head. "You need  _so_ much help."

"Dude, I don't even have a washer. Or a house." He shrugs helplessly, like "what can ya do."

"Where are your cats then?" Woohyun asks suspiciously.

A quiet mew comes from his pocket.

"Well, it's just the one right now."

"Okay, that's the last straw. I'm gonna help you out of the  _kindness_ of my  _heart_ and because this time travel thing is pretty sweet, honestly, and you just look so dumb and helpless." Woohyun begins to mutter to himself. "Doesn't even know what a laundromat is... I swear..."

"I know what that is!" Skull guy protests. "I just have a lot in my pockets. They're enchanted, you know." He looks pretty proud of that one, or as proud as a floating skull head can look.

"Just... tell me that cat is okay."

The black cat pops its head out of his pocket. "I'm quite alright, thank you."

"Oh! You can speak."

"Yes, I know this language very well, I think."

"You're pretty good." Woohyun gives the cat two thumbs up. "Hey, skullguy, whatever your name is" - he cuts off the man before he can get corrected - "I have an idea."

"Why do I feel like I'm about to hear something incredibly stupid?"

"Dangers of the job," Woohyun shrugs. "Your fault for talking to me. Anyway, move in with me."

"Why would I do that?" the skull tilts, and if this was a human he'd probably be able to see an inquisitive look on his face. "I don't want to use your washing machine."

"Because everyone thinks I'm having conversations with myself all the time, obviously." Woohyun sighs. "It's just kind of annoying when you talk to me in public and expect me to respond. You could at least pretend to be a human instead of hiding or being invisible or whatever."

"I'm not  _hiding,_ it's..."

"Another danger of the job?" Woohyun smirks.

"Yes, exactly." The skull sounds indignant and he crosses his arms again.

"I don't care. When's the last time you interacted with a human being other than me?"

"Um..." the sentient, timeless, floating skull above a black Armani suit twists and turns. Woohyun can literally see the gears in his head turning as he thinks of a way to get out of this.

"You're not very good at this whole  _I am a god, fear me_ thing."

"I'm not a god." He sticks his tongue out at him. Oh, wait, he has a tongue now.

"Hey, you grew a face!"

"I stole it from some guy who died somewhere in the 1700s, if I remember right. That's the last time I interacted with a human. He gave me a muffin." He starts touching "his" own face, pulling his cheeks and then patting them to make sure they stay. "If you want to use modern words, that is."

"It's a good change." Woohyun looks him over and nods to himself. "However, if you steal my friends away then I will disfigure you."

"You're a piece of shit," he says.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> btw I randomly got an idea in the middle of the night about woohyun and time travel so I pulled this Right out of my ass and wrote it immediately, please enjoy.


	2. Chapter 2

They're in the store picking things out for dinner when the skull guy brings it up.

"So I just realized, you can't pronounce my name. No mortals are able to, unfortunately." He stares down at the display of various breads, frowning.

"Of course I can! Say it again, I just forgot what it is."

He does so, but the syllables pass right through Woohyun's ears without sticking.

"I'll just call you Skully. Like Scully from The X-Files, except you're not a redhead or Catholic."

"I... guess." Skully looks down and starts pouting. He's so cute when he pouts. Woohyun takes pity on him. (Now that he has a face, he's very expressive. Woohyun sees why he's stuck with the skull all this time: when he doesn't have eyes, he can at least _pretend_ he isn't lame as hell.)

"Who was the dude you pulled identity fraud on? Maybe you can just use his name."

"Sungyeol. Do I look like a Sungyeol to you?" Sungyeol crosses his arms.

"Uh, yeah. You're wearing his face."

"Oh, right."

"Cool, so just tell people that's your name from now on, and when you get in trouble with the law, at least wait until nobody's looking to disappear."

"Why would I get in trouble with the law?" Sungyeol looks horrified even as he chews on a bread roll Woohyun hasn't paid for yet.

"Can't imagine why," Woohyun says sarcastically. "Why don't you know anything? Haven't you at least watched any TV shows?"

"I was in the Joseon dynasty before I met you, shut the hell up." He still looks grumpy. "And... I've never done this before. Why bother with human laws if they change all the time?"

(Fortunately, he's a regular shopper at this store and the lady at the register just nods and adds the roll to the total when he tells her about it.)

As they walk out of the store, Sungyeol accidentally slams into the door frame, despite the sliding doors. Woohyun just sighs. "You have a lot to learn."

" _You're_ the one with a lot to learn," Sungyeol shoots back. He rubs his own forehead. "I am  _power!_ I am  _time itself,_ I am-"

"Gonna get left behind," Woohyun calls back, walking away.

 

 

"Hey, when am I meeting your friends, anyway?" Sungyeol asks later that night. "I'm bored and you don't shut up about them."

And by later that night, we mean in the middle of the night after Woohyun has already turned all the lights off and is in bed and had already fallen asleep, which means Sungyeol  _seriously_ just woke him up for that because, apparently, Why Not?

"Human beings  _sleep_ ," he grumbles into his pillow, turning toward the weirdo who can't keep his questions to himself.

"I know, I spent some time on Earth before." He sounds impatient. Ha, join the club, Woohyun thinks.

"And you woke me up," he continues.

"Oh, I know. It was just a quick question." He genuinely seems not to understand, which makes it harder to be mad at him.

Woohyun wonders, and not for the first or last time, if signing that contract was a good idea after all. An eternity of service under  _this guy_? Maybe he should go back in time far enough to leave a note for himself saying "Do Not Trust People Without Faces Especially If They Offer You Power."

"It takes time to fall back asleep," he explains. "I already stayed up too late and I want to get more sleep before I have to get ready for class."

"Okay?" Sungyeol's head tilts. "Are your friends in your class?"

"Why the hell do I bother..." he whispers to himself. Louder, he says, "No. Nevermind. I'm going out with some of them tomorrow. You can come along if you don't wake me up for random questions anymore."

"Alright!" He sounds excited. God, what a loser.

Woohyun sighs quietly and rolls over to go back to sleep.

"How long do humans sleep, anyway? I forget."

He gets a pillow straight to the face.

 

 

Back when this still sounded like a good idea, he was in deep shit. And by that we mean that Woohyun mortified even himself with how risky his greasiness got, and likely wished, fervently, he could take it back.

He just can't help himself when he has a major crush on someone, okay?

And with a setup like the one he got-

Sunggyu had sighed and said, "I'm bored of being alone. If anyone's secretly in love with me, lemme know."

\- who could blame him for turning toward him and saying, completely deadpan -

"I've been secretly in love with you for years"

\- and he is  _not_ against being petty enough to still hold it against Howon for immediately breaking down into a fit of laughter.

"I'm literally going to murder you, Lee Howon," Woohyun had said.

He'd just continued crying laughing.

Sunggyu patted his shoulder and went, "Well, thanks for trying, anyway. I appreciate the effort."

"Right..." Woohyun gulped. His voice lowered  "Maybe that was a bad joke." No it fucking wasn't, how hard does he have to try to-

"What the hell was that," Howon choked out between laughs. Woohyun secretly hoped he choked for real and died. His friends suck.

"Some of us love and support our friends," he responded angrily. Fuck, he couldn't even confess right. He'd wished he could laugh too, but unfortunately he had taken himself too seriously. He briefly wondered at what point God had abandoned him.

On the bright side, Sunggyu had paid for his drink that day and kept his arm over his shoulders for most of the next hour. Now he just needs to get him to take him seriously.

 

 

 

So the next night when a literal skull had popped out of his bag of rice, he was less than unhappy. Sometimes he gets in these moods and he can take literally anything in stride as long as it's unrelated to the _one_ thing that was really on his mind.

That thing, at this specific moment in time, being Sunggyu and wishing he could take that one back instead of, you know, being the fool of the year.

Everybody has moments like that, right?

But not everybody's rice bags have weird, perfectly smooth skulls inside of them.

"What are you doing in there?" he wondered aloud, absentmindedly, and reached down to pick it up from where it had tumbled out onto the ground.

"I'm stuck," a voice from the skull seemed to respond.

This startled Woohyun and he jumped backward, yelling, "I am  _never_ shopping at that store again."

"Do they have bad service?" the skull wondered as it began to levitate, stopping somewhere well above Woohyun's height, if he'd been standing closer. A dark cloud formed underneath the skull until it dissipated and revealed a plain black suit. A pair of skeletal hands slid down the sleeves and hung from the ends of it, though they seemed not to be attached to anything once the figure lifted its arms to inspect itself and smooth down its suit.

"No, they just- you-" Woohyun shook his head, bewildered. "What were you doing in there?"

"I told you. I was stuck."

"It's a giant, zipped bag, how did you get in there in the fir-"

"Oh, it was a trap!" The skull figure sounded like it was grinning, yet it had no lips and its jaw didn't move. "Yeah, I was just hiding somewhere I figured you'd find me. When I was on Earth last time, they were really into rice, so I thought you'd get around to opening that bag. And here you are!"

"That's... nice." Woohyun could feel a cold sweat down his back. "Well, if that was all, I think I need to pass out now."

"No, don't do that!" The figure snapped its bone fingers and Woohyun could feel himself being lifted into the air, successfully freaking him out ten times more than he had been a second before. "Sit down, you'll feel better."

He was forcibly pushed toward the shitty, rickety thing he calls a "table" and into the chair aside it. It didn't make him feel any better.

"Are you okay?" The skull thing asked, as if it had literally any reason to care. "I didn't mean to scare you."

"What  _did_ you mean to do, then?"

"Well, like I said, it was a trap." It sat down on the other chair. "So I could borrow you. We just had a conversation, although I guess you don't remember anymore." Its sunken eye sockets seemed to stare directly into Woohyun's eyes and he couldn't look away. "That's normal. Don't worry about it. Here's the contract." A long sheet of paper floated down from the ceiling onto the table in front of them both.

He skimmed the passages - time travel, stipulations, and apparently a book list? His heart shook in his chest when he saw his signature at the bottom. "I didn't sign this," he whispered.

"Oh, you did. I already explained it all to you." Skull thing shrugged. "It's hard to explain where we were, but it was like... a pocket in space? It's a neutral area and the law says contracts must be signed in neutral space, it's this whole thing... Hey, you don't look so good."

"Always wanted to be told I don't look good," Woohyun responded automatically. His voice sounded weak even to his own ears. "So you're saying..."

"It's real. You'll be able to remember by tomorrow, I should expect."

"Right..."

"What you need to know now is you're my apprentice. I picked you because your soul is capable of learning what humans call time travel. It's a great honor, really."

That perked him up. "Time travel? So I can go back and..." His mind ran through every dumb thing he'd said even that week.

"Not yet, but soon." The skull thing held its hand out to Woohyun, and, strangely, he reached forward and shook it. "First you need to find your memory. I'll give you a shortcut for now and tell you where it is."

Woohyun has literally never felt this dumb in his  _life_. "Uh... why?"

"It's this whole thing," it repeated. "Kind of a test to see if you can do some things. I think it's somewhere over there?" It pointed at the wall, but behind it was Woohyun's bedroom. "Yep. I definitely threw it back there."

"How did you even take it?"

"Memories are just as fluid as time is," it says. "I moved our first conversation to after our second conversation, which is right now. It's just for a fun test! Lighten up."

Without responding, Woohyun rubbed his face, made sure the goddamn skull man was still sitting at his table, and got up to go "find his memory." He shuffled down the hall, trying to deny to himself that he was actually excited about the prospect of, you know, fuckin' _travelling in time_.

A blinding blue light stopped him in front of his doorway. Suddenly he was floating... somewhere... again. The area was another shade of blue, but inside a black box he could see himself and a black cloud deep in conversation. When he focused on it, he could hear them.

"You want me to train to be you?" he heard himself ask.

"Not really. You're more like a test subject."

"What the fuck?" Memory-Woohyun looked very unimpressed.

"You haven't proven yourself yet," the skull guy responded flippantly, waving his hand. "Do you have any questions about the contract?"

"Yeah. What's the catch?"

"Catch?"

"It just says I have to let you train me. What are you making me do?"

"I see." The cloud - presumably the skull guy - paused for a moment. "According to my syllabus, this week I'm giving you three books and a crash course."

"On what?"

"Time travel, silly."

"So I'll be doing it for real?" Woohyun in the memory sounded extremely happy at the idea.

"I'll be doing it, but bringing you with me."

"Awesome."

"Out of curiosity, what time would you like to visit?"

He looked down at his feet, shy. The Woohyun watching the memory already felt embarrassed for what he knew he was about to say. "Yesterday, I said this really dumb thing to my hyung, and I want to take it back."

"Oh, no. No. We won't be changing anything yet." The cloud seems to grow darker. "For one thing, you'll be travelling with me, so you won't have the ability to do anything but watch. Secondly, what the hell? You don't want to see something actually cool, like the Normandy landings or the literal Big Bang?"

The rest of the conversation goes like so:

Woohyun: "No, I want to see my friend."

Cloud-and/or-Skull: "Your priorities are whack."

Woohyun: "Take me to a concert, then."

Cloud-and/or-Skull: "Deal."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> me @ woohyun in everything I ever write: what the hell is wrong with him
> 
> anyway! the timeline of this is definitely experimental for me, in that there is no timeline except the parts that are in present tense.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a whoooole lot has happened in the past few months and i didn't care about writing but here i am! so hello! i love u

Woohyun is almost finished brushing his teeth in the bathroom when Sungyeol walks in.

"Dude, privacy," he says after he spits the toothpaste into the sink.

"Why do you need privacy?" Sungyeol responds. "I know all your darkest secrets."

"First of all, that's creepy. Second of all, I don't know, I could have been holding my dick? That's not a time any human wants to be walked in on."

"But you weren't."

"But I could have been."

"But you weren't! So it doesn't matter."

"I don't like you," Woohyun decides.

"That's the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me," Sungyeol says. "Anyway, pay attention, bitch." He turns Woohyun's head toward the mirror by grabbing the top of his head.

Woohyun's yell of protest dies on his tongue when he sees what the mirror is showing. No longer is it his regular, smudged bathroom mirror; now, it's swirling with dark clouds.

"Well, that's not normal," he says unnecessarily.

Sungyeol snorts. The clouds disperse and then they're watching the events of the previous day. " _This_ is the memory you wanna reflect on?" he asks, almost offended.

 

 

Sungyeol was standing in the hallway near the door to Woohyun's last class, pretending to look cool and natural even though nothing about him was natural. He was probably just bored.

"Where'd you go, anyway?" Woohyun asked. Sungyeol followed him down the hall and they fall into step.

"Here," he said.

"You just skipped the whole day?" Something about that unsettles him, but that's probably thanks to his anxiety over being late and missing everything. Space demons or... whatever Sungyeol is... probably have never worried about anything in their lives, least of all being  _late_. "Heh. I wish I could have done that. Hate that class. Wait, why didn't you just do that last night?"

"Who says I didn't skip your nappy time, you big baby?"

"Well, don't do it, rude-ass. It's weird and irresponsible. What if I needed to find you or something but you were in the frickin' Jurassic period or something? They don't have cell service there."

"You're one to talk about being _irresponsible._ " Sungyeol slung an arm around Woohyun's shoulders, almost in a friendly way. Woohyun shrugged him off. "Wanting to use one of the most powerful and sacred tools you'll ever experience just to get your crush to look at you? Sad, Woohyun. So sad."

"Don't remember asking you," Woohyun grumbled. "Speaking of that, you can't tell anyone about you and your whole. You know. Extra-terrestrial thing."

"I know," Sungyeol scowled.

"Alright, just making sure."

"Where are we going?"

"Meeting my friends, remember?"

They finished the walk to the restaurant in silence.

Sungyeol takes in the image of the business front. "My first human date," he laughed.

"You wish!" Woohyun put him in a headlock and dragged him inside, laughing with him. "Do you frequently have  _non_ -human dates?" Then he looked up and, of course,  _of course_ , locks eyes with Sunggyu at a table a few yards away. Woohyun's grip went slack and Sungyeol slipped out from under his arms.

"Did your fucking breath just hitch," Sungyeol asked judgmentally.

"Yep. Think so," Woohyun responds, walking away, leaving Sungyeol to trail after him.

Three of his friends were there already - Sunggyu, Myungsoo, and Howon. "Hello to everybody," Woohyun greeted them, "but especially Sunggyu hyung." He sat down in the open spot immediately beside him and beamed at him.

"What am I, chopped liver?" Howon asked distastefully.

"Hey, Myungsoo," Woohyun said.

Myungsoo smiled at him from across the table.

Howon just rolled his eyes. "Who are you?" he asked Sungyeol. "I'm-"

"Hoya, Myungie, and Gyu," Woohyun interrupted, pointing quickly. All three of their faces screwed up like they'd eaten a lemon, which is really what Woohyun was going for. "This is Sungyeol. He's the same age as me. We're roommates since yesterday."

Howon's face changed to concern. "Do you guys even know each other?"

"For like a week," Woohyun shrugged.

"You moved in with him after a  _week_ of knowing him?"

"You moved in with Sunggyu hyung despite knowing exactly what kind of person he was, so what's your point?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sunggyu asked.

Woohyun put his arms around him and said, "It means you were supposed to ask me to move in with you, not him!" His smile was that of a person asking for forgiveness or perhaps tolerance.

Sungyeol is a quick learner, and so he said, "Ah. So I'm the one who's chopped liver."

Woohyun, still making faces at Sunggyu, said, "Maybe I just don't like your fucking cat."

"Cat?" Myungsoo said, perking up.

"You love my fucking cat," Sungyeol replied.

"I do love your fucking cat. Take her out of your pocket."

"What the fuck?" Sunggyu asked. "Is that a euphemism?" Woohyun just shook his head 'no.'

Sungyeol took out the cat, putting her on the table. "Is she even allowed here?" he asked belatedly.

"Oh my god, a cat." Myungsoo started petting her. The entity seemed to enjoy it, leaning into Myungsoo's touch. "Hey, that reminds me. Weren't Sungjongie and Dongwoo hyung supposed to join us?" he asked absently.

"They're probably off being lovey dovey without us," Howon said, staring at the cat.

"What's wrong, Howon? Do you want to be lovey dovey too?" Woohyun asked. "I can make an exception just this once."

Howon tilted his head to the side. "It's funny that you're the one being this cheeky," he said.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Woohyun said, folding one of his legs over Sunggyu's. Sunggyu remains unfazed. "Just two dudes being guys."

"Just one Woohyun being himself," Sunggyu said.

"Just one Woohyun being himself," Woohyun amended.

 

 

Sungyeol watched Woohyun watching the memory. When Woohyun lifts his head away from scrutinizing the mirror, Sungyeol asks what he was looking at.

"Well, I was looking at the mirror."

"Inside the mirror, which is not really a mirror."

"Isn't it a mirror?"

"It was a mirror, but now it's- Stop changing the subject!" Sungyeol crosses his arms. "What just happened is like this: You don't have a good grasp on your powers."

"Thanks, I'm so happy to hear it," Woohyun says sarcastically.

Sungyeol ignores him. "So unlikely things like your mirror showing your latest regret is bound to happen."

"Oh, is that all it was? I thought you were screwing with me because you're all-seeing and all-knowing, or so you'd have me believe."

Sungyeol slams his fist into the palm of his other hand. "So that's what this is about! What did you think I noticed?"

"You can't fool me, trickster." Woohyun shakes his finger at him and walks out of the bathroom.

"You don't think I know what your problem is?" Sungyeol asks, following him around the apartment as if they were in a Pink music video.

"You'll definitely know if I tell you," Woohyun points out. "Are you going to kill me if you don't get what you want from me?"

"Are you afraid of me?"

Woohyun half-expects to be levitated like when they met for the first-or-second time, but that doesn't happen. "I don't understand your intentions," he says finally.

"I'm not here to fuck with you," Sungyeol says. "I will never trick you, or lie to you."

Woohyun licks his lips. "Sounded a little like a demon just then."

"I'm not a demon," Sungyeol says, flopping down on the couch. The cat jumps up onto the back of the couch and starts washing her face. "I'm  _Time_. I told you I was Time."

Woohyun sits on the armchair, the only other seating in the room. "And you're... bored? Lonely?"

"It's just been Baby and me for... eternity. Maybe less. You know your parents, your brother - what do you think made me? I existed once, though I do not remember who that was. I don't know anybody. I can not speak to just anybody, did you know that? Woohyun,  _you_ are the only connection I have to this world. Lee Sungyeol is an illusion." He snaps his fingers and suddenly he is gone.

Baby walks into the room, though she had just been sitting on the couch, carrying a skull. She sets it down at Woohyun's feet and informs him that "He's been waiting this whole time to do that."

Sungyeol reappears, and scoops her up in his arms, and tells her not to be such a partypooper. She hops gracefully onto Woohyun's lap. He rolls his eyes. "So, you understand now? I am exactly as bound to you as you are to me." He rubs his cat's head. "Wanna go talk about your man crush now?"

"I know you're all special and stuff, but I am a normal, ordinary man in normal, ordinary love."

"Woohyun. There's nothing ordinary about love."

"Well, good. Just so we're on the same page." Woohyun pouts at him. "And for the record, he had his hand on my thigh the whole time we were there and I need to know why, please help me."

Sungyeol whistles lowly. "Sly dog," says admiringly. "Didn't know he had it in him."

"I would like to be a dog soon," Baby says.

"Myungsoo might be sad," Woohyun tells her. "But he'll like you both ways. I'll just tell him you're a Pokemon."

"That is good," she says, hopping off his lap to go do whatever it is not-demon not-cats busy themselves with. Napping, maybe. That's what Woohyun would choose to do.

After she's out of sight, Sungyeol sighs and crosses his arms. "Alright, next lesson. You can't think of time travel as a solution. The more complicated things get, the less likely it is to actually help you fix anything. Don't get caught up trying to point at every little thing you ever did wrong. Sometimes what looks like the wrong path will even out and take you to the right place."

"Who'd you steal that from, Robert Frost?" Woohyun laughs at his own joke.

"Fuck you, I'm the only reason you know who that is. But NO, you are WRONG. I made that one up myself. I _am_ older and wiser than you, after all."

"You don't even believe in age unless you can hold it over me," Woohyun whines.

"Take some more books, weirdo," Sungyeol says, pulling a few out of his pocket and shoving them in Woohyun's hands.

"This wasn't on the syllabus. Are you a fraud? I don't think this man's ever been to teaching school!" Woohyun narrates the last part to himself. "Are you qualified to provide education to me?"

"Only time will tell," Sungyeol snickers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> originally it was going to be myungsoo who was the Skull Guy but then i thought sungyeol would be funnier, coz he is basically the funniest person in the world, and coz i love wooyeol or whatever they're called (besides, they did fortune-telling together in ifnt showtime!) - so i kept the cat and the joseon dynasty identity theft and now myungsoo is just Some Guy


End file.
